Photo: Kelowna RCMP
Police seized drugs and cash from a Lower Mission home in April 2018.
A Kelowna man faces a substantial prison sentence after police raided his home in April 2018 and found large amounts of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Police executed a search warrant on Brandon Campbell’s home on Old Meadows Road on April 24, 2018 and found 627 grams of fentanyl, 846 grams of cocaine and 395 grams of methamphetamine, and more than $ 15,000 in cash.
The charges against Campbell were not brought until the following year when he was charged with four human trafficking counts.
While a trial was originally scheduled for January 2020, Campbell pleaded guilty instead.
However, the condemnation positions of the Crown and the Defense are miles apart.
During the Friday morning conviction, the Crown said they are aiming for an eight-year prison sentence, while Campbell’s defense attorney William Jessop is aiming for a two-to-three-year sentence.
29-year-old Campbell first appeared on the RCMP’s radar a few months before his arrest when he arrived in a right-hand drive Subaru at a well-known drug dealer on Ziprick Road and left with a bag. Police later received an anonymous tip that someone driving a right-hand drive Subaru is drug trafficking in the Okanagan, which resulted in police starting to monitor Campbell.
After seeing Campbell having several suspicious meetings with others at his home for a few days, police drove over a jeep that left Campbell’s home on April 24.
It is unclear what the police found in the jeep, but Judge Kathleen Ker noted that one of the inmates “had something hidden in the car in their split”.
“They are making a statement to the police that they are a drug dealer and that this person is supplying them,” Jessop told the court on Friday, adding that this gave the police grounds for obtaining a search warrant.
In Campbell’s rented townhouse, police found large amounts of drugs, cash and a scale.
While Jessop acknowledged that his client was billed as a “medium-sized” human trafficker who sold ounce-level drugs to other traffickers, he argued that he had moved drugs on a larger scale after losing his license in early April 2018.
“This isn’t a kind of stash house operation that speaks for the sophistication,” said Jessop. “I have to admit the large amount of drugs that have been discovered, so it’s kind of a balance there because when you see that large amount of drug discovery, you usually see an attempt to isolate yourself through hideout houses, through third party vehicles. There are no firearms or weapons discovered in the house … it speaks to the sophistication of an operation. “
Jessop also noted that when Campbell was arrested, Campbell did not lead a “lavish lifestyle” but was in fact seriously addicted to fentanyl and smoked it on a daily basis.
Campbell’s drug problems date back to high school when he was first prescribed Dilaudid. His opioid use evolved into hydromorphone, oxycontin, and then heroin and fentanyl.
Jessop said Campbell has been drug free since June 2020 and has attended more than 50 appointments at Interior Health’s Opioid Agonist Treatment Clinic that he volunteered for.
“He certainly recognizes that his distribution of narcotics and opiates in this community could have destroyed dozens or hundreds of lives as it nearly destroyed his own life,” said Jessop.
Campbell is currently on bail. Several family members were in the courtroom to assist him on Friday morning.
Judge Ker has reserved her judgment for a later date.
